In the Third Round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Don Revie
came upon a familiar name as his adversary. Bill Shanklyís
brother Bob was the Manager of Unitedís opponents,
Hibernian, and he had masterminded a remarkable comeback by the Edinburgh
club in the Second Round.† Hibernian had
blitzed Napoli, who had the
young and later to be well renowned Dino Zoff in
goal, 5-0 at Easter Road to pull back a 4-1 deficit from their away leg in Naples.
They also had several fine players who were later to make their mark in English
football or were already Scottish Internationals. Players like Peter Cormack, Colin Stein, Pat Quinn, Jimmy OíRourke, Bobby
Duncan and Pat Stanton. They were running a sturdy third behind the Glasgow
giants Celtic and Rangers and United knew they were in for a hard fight if they
were to progress.

After Hibernianís feat of the previous round there were many backers for the
Scottish team, particularly north of the border. United welcomed the return of
Giles and Jones to European action after lengthy absences due to injury but
Mike OíGrady was still a long-term absentee. Manager Revie
pulled Paul Madeley out of his proposed England
under-23 debut at centre-half against Italy
at Nottingham, as the game took place on the same night
as the clash with Hibs. He reasoned that United were
paying his wages and he was in such good form that his England
under-23 debut was a future formality.

Billy Bremner must have reflected that he could
have been lining up for the Edinburgh
club, if he had not changed his mind during his period of home-sickness for the
nearby Stirling. And so five days before Christmas he
led out a team containing fellow Scots Eddie Gray and Peter Lorimer
to face a team from their homeland capital. United had had several listless
performances and Don Revie was prompted to bring back
Mick Jones, who had been out injured since September and Johnny Giles, who had
not played for eight weeks as he too was injured. He could not have had a
better start and ironically it was a Scotsman, Eddie Gray, who opened the
scoring after only four minutes as Hibernian keeper Willie Wilson sent a goal
kick straight to Jimmy Greenhoff, who beat Joe Davis
and crossed for Eddie Gray to shoot. The ball struck John Madsen but rebounded
to Gray, who made no mistake with his second attempt and the Elland Road crowd settled back
contemplating a goal feast. It didnít happen as, while Gary Sprake
was a virtual spectator, United played probably their worst display in European
competition and when it came to putting the ball in the Hibernian net nothing
went right.

Despite the worst possible start, Hibernian had settled down
to run midfield where the skilful Peter Cormackoutmanouvred Billy Bremner and
only excellent defensive play by Norman Hunter kept the Scottish side at bay. Colin
Stein though he had equalised in the twenty-first minute when he challenged
Gary Sprake on the goal line The Welsh keeper grabbed
the ball and when he bounced it to clear Stein prodded it into the net. The
Irish referee awarded a goal but then disallowed it on the advice of his
linesman who was of the view that Stein had got the ball into the net through
dangerous play. It was to be Steinís last meaningful contribution to the game
as he had to leave the field injured a couple of minutes later. Leeds
also had a goal disallowed just after the hour when Peter Lorimer
had the ball in the net from a Mick Jones pass but was ruled offside.

In a frantic finish, Willie Wilson made a point-blank save
from Mick Jones, while at the other end Gary Sprake
foiled Alex Scott in a rare Hibernian raid. United had struggled to find their
rythmn on a bone hard pitch but the surface did not stop Peter Cormack putting on a super showand
it was no real surprise to those watching that he went on to make a big
impression in English football with Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.

So United took a slender one goal lead north of the border to the Scottish
capital for the return leg, knowing that their performance could only improve.

Match Action:

Eddie Gray scores for Leeds

††††††††††††

Gary Sprake saves at the feet of Colin Stein

Teams:

Players:

Hibernian full-back Joe Davis scores from the spot against Hearts

Bobby Duncan

Peter Cormack

Jim OíRourke

Pat Stanton

††††††††††††† †††††††††††††††

Eric Stevenson, Pat Quinn and Colin Stein were the danger men up front for Hibernian